Azerbaijan

By DAVID HOLLEY and DAVID HOLLEY,LOS ANGELES TIMES | November 10, 2005

BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Thousands rallied in Azerbaijan's capital yesterday to demand the government's resignation because of abuses in last weekend's parliamentary election. But both sides showed signs of compromise, with the rally ending peacefully and officials taking steps to address problems with the vote counting. Under the glare of hundreds of helmeted riot police, about 20,000 protesters, many waving orange flags as a symbol of peaceful revolt, gathered in Victory Square for a three-hour rally permitted by the government.

It is not clear why the Obama administration and its allies in Congress decided to express their misplaced "concern" regarding Hungary's extradition of Lt. Ramil Safarov to his native Azerbaijan ("Ax murderer's homecoming stokes Caucasus feud," Sept. 7). It is not our place to tell two sovereign nations, which happen to be our allies, how they should carry out justice in their countries. After all, we keep Guantanamo Bay open, refuse to join the International Criminal Court and limit the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice at The Hague, among other things.

By Will Englund and Will Englund,Moscow Bureau of The Sun | July 18, 1991

MOSCOW -- With the smoldering war in the Caucasus heating up again, an international human rights delegation sharply criticized Soviet authorities yesterday for siding with the Azerbaijanis in their often violent efforts to expel Armenians.Delegation members said Soviet army units typically surround villages while Azerbaijani security forces circle overhead in helicopters, informing villagers that if they do not leave the province, they will be shot.Since the end of April, they said, more than 10,000 Armenians have been forcibly deported in this way from Azerbaijan.

This week,"The Amazing Race"brings us hay, oil, apples, cheese and crackers. Plus a little bit of heartbreak. I'm fortified with lots of homemade peppermint cookies, though, so I can get through this. Remember Bavaria? Land of Beards and Inquisitive Cows? That was so seven days ago. The remaining teams are sent to Baku, Azerbaijan. I know, you're all, “I'm so tired of everyone always going to Azerbaijan, it's like the Palm Springs of the Eurasian continent.” I'll still give you a geography refresher, though.

MAHMUDLU, Azerbaijan -- The helicopter took off again in a hurry, and for a moment, as the heavy sun beat down on a richly green field, there was no sight or sound of the thousands of refugees who have streamed toward this pocket of a war-ravaged and despairing Azerbaijan.The crickets whirred. The sunlight shimmered on brown hills a few miles away to the south, across the border in Iran. Five miles to the north, the advance artillery of the invading Armenian forces was silent.Then 15-year-old Ali Ibragimov ambled out of the rushes that grow along an irrigation ditch, waving an antique double-barreled shotgun as if it were a drum major's baton.

IN A FEW WEEKS, Azerbaijan will junk the Russian script in favor of the Latin alphabet system. The country's renewed political independence has brought linguistic independence as well. Azerbaijan is not alone. Several former Soviet vassals have gotten rid of the Cyrillic script of their erstwhile Moscow masters. Even Mongolia is considering it. Oil-rich Azerbaijan, though, offers a poignant illustration of how language can be used as a tool in shifting political winds. For centuries, Azerbaijan's overwhelmingly Islamic population wrote its poetry, books and letters with Arabic characters.

MOSCOW -- Azerbaijan accused Armenia yesterday of launching a surprise invasion of its territory with the aid of units of the former Soviet army, only two days after a call for an immediate cease-fire, but officials in Armenia and Moscow flatly denied the accusation.President Ayaz Mutalibov and other Azerbaijani leaders, meeting in emergency session in Baku, said the "direct aggression" had pushed relations between the Transcaucasian neighbors to their most dangerous point in two years.The accusation spotlighted the uncertain future of what had been the world's largest standing military force -- the 3.7 million-member Soviet army -- as it speeds toward what the commander believes will be its inevitable breakup into separate national forces.

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN -- Waving orange flags and calling for the government's resignation, about 20,000 protesters rallied in Azerbaijan's capital yesterday as the opposition kept up pressure to overturn the results of a disputed parliamentary election. The rally, watched over by hundreds of riot police, ended without violence. But opposition leaders said further protests would be held across the country in the coming weeks. Isa Gambar, a leader of the newly formed Democratic Front, which unites virtually all opposition forces in this former Soviet state, called on President Ilham Aliyev to negotiate as the only way out of the confrontation over opposition charges of fraud in the Nov. 6 balloting.

BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Ross Perot, meet Lala Gajiyeva.In June she was a little-known doctor who hadn't lived in Azerbaijan for almost two decades.Then she was interviewed on TV.Today, she is this troubled country's state secretary, the No. 2 person in the government and the highest-ranking woman in Azerbaijan's history."

MOSCOW -- Azerbaijani militias, reportedly backed by attack aircraft and scores of tanks, pushed into the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh yesterday in a strong offensive that prompted Armenia to threaten direct intervention in the 4-year-old war.The Azerbaijanis, who had lost their last foothold in Nagorno-Karabakh last month, took at least five villages in tough fighting believed to have left dozens dead, reports from the region said. But Azerbaijani officials played down the offensive, saying that the captured villages had been taken and retaken several times before, and that it was hard to tell anymore who were attackers and who defenders.

As Iranians continue to protest their lack of voice, Western publics, commentators and policymakers express growing sympathy with the demands for free and fair elections. Yet the romance and tragedy of these events should not blind us to the fact that electoral protests of this type seldom produce democratization. Research I conducted with graduate student Katya Kalandadze, soon to be published in Comparative Political Studies, shows that "electoral revolutions" similar to the one in Iran have occurred with some frequency worldwide since 1991 as authoritarian regimes have sought legitimacy by giving greater scope to elections - while avoiding full democracy.

By James Gerstenzang and Paul Richter and James Gerstenzang and Paul Richter,Los Angeles Times | September 4, 2008

WASHINGTON - Offering new support for Georgia after its losing military clash with Russia last month, President Bush said yesterday that the United States would provide up to $1 billion in assistance to the beleaguered Caucasus nation. But by including no money for Georgia's military, the White House appeared to be trying to avoid irritating Moscow while the region remains tense. Although administration officials said they are considering rearming the Georgians, funds in the two-year package announced yesterday are reserved for economic and humanitarian assistance.

In the past two months, Russian diplomacy threw a wrench into transatlantic relations, jeopardized U.S. and European energy security plans, put a dent in America's relations with NATO ally Poland, decreased Western influence in the strategic Caucasus region, and significantly increased Moscow's global profile vis-?-vis Brussels and Washington. President Bush's response was to invite Russian President Vladimir V. Putin to the Bush family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, for talks on July 1, making Mr. Putin the first head of state to ever receive the honor.

What to be skeptical about: the proposal by Russian President Vladimir V. Putin to use a Russian radar site in Azerbaijan as an outpost of America's missile defense system. What to be even more skeptical about: America's missile defense system. Mr. Putin has been railing against plans by the Bush administration to install a radar station in the Czech Republic and 10 missile interceptors in Poland, which he portrays as provocations aimed more at Russia than at Iran or some other Middle Eastern nation.

By James Gerstenzang and James Gerstenzang,LOS ANGELES TIMES | June 9, 2007

ROME -- As President Bush received an endorsement yesterday in Poland for placing missile interceptors there, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin presented a second alternative in two days for where the U.S. should install the missile-defense system. The Russian president, speaking at a news conference at the end of Group of Eight summit, said the interceptors could be located in Turkey, or perhaps in Iraq or at sea. A day earlier, he caught U.S. officials by surprise in suggesting that an existing Russian-run radar system in Azerbaijan be used to protect Europe from a possible attack by Iran.

By James Gerstenzang and James Gerstenzang,LOS ANGELES TIMES | June 8, 2007

HEILIGENDAMM, GERMANY -- Russian President Vladimir V. Putin proposed yesterday that a missile-defense radar system in Azerbaijan be used to protect Europe from a possible future attack by Iran, and President Bush said the United States and Russia would begin talks aimed at finding areas of strategic cooperation. The surprise proposal from Putin, and the reaction from Bush and other U.S. officials, suggested that the two leaders were seeking ways to step back from their confrontation over a U.S. plan to deploy a missile defense network in Poland and the Czech Republic.

BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Hours after polls closed in parliamentary balloting yesterday, opposition parties and authorities in this oil-rich nation headed toward a potentially violent confrontation over whether results should be thrown out on grounds of fraud. Leaders of the three-party opposition Freedom bloc declared at an evening news conference that violations of electoral law during the day's voting were so serious that they would launch protests aimed at overturning the results, beginning with a rally tomorrow afternoon in the capital.

By Bill Keller and Bill Keller,New York Times News Service | September 23, 1991

YEREVAN, U.S.S.R. -- Armenia has agreed to renounce any claim to a territory at the heart of its dispute with neighboring Azerbaijan and to enter formal negotiations on the issue today in an attempt to end the Soviet Union's bloodiest and longest-running civil conflict, officials said here yesterday.The apparent breakthrough came as Armenia prepared to declare its independence formally from the Soviet Union. Officials announced last night that more than 94 percent of the voters supported independence in a referendum Saturday, which was certain to be ratified by the Parliament today.

"Shiite Crescent" is Washington's new buzzword. Coined by Jordan's King Abdullah, the Shiite Crescent extends from Iran through Iraq to Syria and Lebanon and threatens the Middle East's status quo. With the Shiite community's rise to political prominence in Iraq, instability in Shiite-majority Bahrain, and Iran's invigorated confrontation with the West, the spotlight is shining on the rising power of this religious minority. The premise of the Shiite Crescent assumes that states sharing common sectarian ties tend to form alliances and choose cooperation partners.

MOSCOW -- Thousands of protesters in Azerbaijan shouting "Freedom!" and vowing to occupy downtown Baku were beaten back yesterday by riot police wielding truncheons and water cannons. Witnesses said hundreds of protesters were injured, along with at least 26 police officers. The demonstration, in which opposition leaders demanding new Parliament elections appeared to be staging an attempt to occupy the capital's Victory Square, ended when officers in helmets and riot shields broke apart the speaker's stand, ripped orange flags out of protesters' hands and began beating demonstrators and opposition leaders with batons, leaving several people lying injured in the square.